Dole-bludgers, leaners and other neoliberal fantasies

Centrelink is in the news again after an automated debt recovery system with an overly simplistic data-matching algorithm effectively made up debts for some welfare recipients. This follows the gaffe in September 2016 when members of the Federal Government argued that welfare recipients who turn down paying work shouldn’t be eligible for government assistance. In a disappointing but entirely expected move, the government declined to fix the ‘debt-recovery’ system, in a continuation of their campaign to undermine welfare through continual cuts to unemployment spending.

The bludger represents a special category: a person who is unemployed because they chose to be, and therefore takes advantage of the welfare state. These characters are usually denigrated for diverting welfare funds away from the ‘deserving poor’: industrious workers who are poor or unemployed despite their lack of obvious vices, an archetype depicted in the recent movie on the British welfare system I, Daniel Blake. The problem with this parallel is not only that it’s classist and doesn’t match our actual reality, but also that it helps to hide the real effects of neoliberal economic policies.

In fact, the unemployed are disproportionately targeted by welfare cuts, especially jobseekers under thirty who are forced to feel the brunt of punitive policies ostentatiously designed to motivate them into finding paying work. The language used to justify cuts usually centres around recipients’ laziness and economic non-participation: the taxed against the taxed-nots, or lifters against the leaners. But not every unemployed person is unemployed because they’re ‘lazy’, and economic non-participation doesn’t automatically imply a moral failing. For a good example of the problems with the bludger narrative, an analysis of a single story should suffice.

In 2015, A Current Affair ran a story on an unemployed single mother, Alex Girle. Alex was depicted as a bludger: unemployed and happy about it, and content to support her six children on $1,871 a fortnight in parenting and carer payments. The resentment towards her seemed to rest on her assertion that she doesn’t look for work because she makes more on welfare than she would in a minimum wage job.

But this was understandable in her context! She already struggles to support her family on welfare payments, and her parental obligations mean that she’d have to choose between spending anything she earns on childcare or on having hours flexible enough to allow her to support her kids. A Current Affair failed to represent Alex in context, and chose instead to present her as a bludger in a story that the Council of Single Mothers and their Children described as:

A confusing and contradictory segment, which on one hand seemed to acknowledge wages were too low for a family to survive on, but then implied a minimum rate of income support provided as a safety net was too generous.

Alex is a welfare recipient accused of moral failure: refusing to find work. This ignores some obvious realities. First of all, not all jobs are appropriate for everyone in every situation, and Girle wanted to contribute, but could not. This means that she was either victim to unavoidable economic circumstances (and therefore can’t be blamed for being poor) or that the wages of the jobs that she was qualified for were too low to allow her to support her family. Disregarding inhumane objections, (welfare recipients with ‘too many’ children and not enough money should be forced to either adopt their children out, or have them die of malnutrition on the street) these are legitimate problems, which could be solved by legislation to incentivise the hiring of, or boost the pay of, working mothers, and to increase accessibility to childcare for the working poor. Another solution would be to support Girle in gaining further training or education, in tandem with providing affordable childcare, so that she could compete for higher paying roles.

The beauty of this worldview – for those who disproportionately benefit from the current system – is that, by reducing everything down to individuals, it draws people’s attention away from the structural causes of poverty and inequality.

By representing any individual’s unemployment as stemming from a lack of individual effort, that is bludging, we refuse to acknowledge even the possibility of structural disadvantage, and we entrench pre-existing power structures and deny their responsibility. It’s clear why the beneficiaries of these power structures desire their protection and expansion, but the shaming of the unemployed is prevalent even amongst middle and working class Australians: groups who stand to lose the most from the policies that shame supports. Welfare is an important tool for economic mobility, it prevents crime and increases worker bargaining power – social benefits the bludger archetype encourages us to overlook in support of more restrictive welfare policies. When considered side-by-side with other government agendas – undermining student loans for low-income students, union bashing, and a focus on hard-work and austerity for the lower classes, while protecting passive income for the rich – we start to recognise the ways that the idea of the bludger helps to perpetuate the policies of neoliberalism.

The IMF has said that neoliberal policies are increasing income inequality, which already costs Australians over $500 individually every year. It feels like such a simple moral judgement: people should be working to support their country, and those who don’t should try to be ashamed of it. But this expectation has a negative effect on almost everyone, excluding the profoundly rich. It must be fought against at every turn.

Oh yeah, to be sure. I feel like much of capitalism is based on older prejudice from my reading of ‘The Wealth of Nations’, but I couldn’t mention everything in a single piece. Thanks for the addendum though. I dig it.

This is a very well written article, and I’d quip that it should be required reading for any student about to leave school. We always knew, as Trotskyists, that neoliberal capitalism is very good at using ‘smokescreen’ tactics (a false ‘consciousness’) to hide it’s fundamental problems. A favourite is the ‘dole bludger': some exotic beast that seems to causing havoc to the whole system and needs to be eradicated. They are often used as lead stories on current affair tv and newspaper front pages. The above article is a excellent study of the phenomenon.

“Socially beneficial but financially unrewarded labour” requires a lot more investigation and consideration. An example is the volunteer sector. The idea that paid employment is the pinnacle of human achievement and anything less is “moral failure” – no matter how much it benefits the community – needs to be re-evaluated. Parenting and especially motherhood is the greatest social welfare our societies have ever and will ever experience: unpaid and arguably impossible to place a financial value on. This ‘fact’ lends credence to the idea of a Universal Basic Income or ‘Citizens Dividend’ IMHO …

In the U.S. “classless and egalitarian” society if one is not wealthy, he or she is necessarily blocked from partaking in the most important and beneficial aspects of life. Their smallest gains are often resented by those who have so much. A prime example is to rescind Obamacare. The underclasses struggle to survive and are victimized by never having enough of the “basics” as they navigate through life characterized by those who have as malcontents and ungrateful criminals or
would be criminals. The truth is that most who are outside of economic growth and prosperity will remain so because the will of the majority is to keep them poor. The unspoken feeling is that if they rise it will force the middle or upper classes to fall.

In my case my story was grossly twisted to suit a political agenda in my view! Especially given the fact that Tony Abbott came out on the same night and announced welfare reforms.

I actually contacted them because I wanted to work but the system is so floored that it needs fixing now.

Stupidly on my part I wanted to draw attention to the fact we need investment in re-skilling and in creating more jobs! At the time of my story we had 750,000 + unemployed
And only 155000 jobs advertised per month.

Instead they saw my story as a headline for grabbing ratings!! Naive on my part I know!

What was also misrepresented was the fact that I would be paying $500 per fortnight on child care which in fact it was closer to $1,600 if you include before and after school care for my older children and special care for my disabled child and I would be on minimum wage of around $654 per week!!

In conclusion we need to invest in re skilling, creating more jobs, and making childcare more affordable and accessible for everyone!!

Thank you so much for adding these extra details, Alex! I agree with you wholeheartedly, and it turns out that way every time, which is why I wrote this essay. I hope my use of your example didn’t bring up any trauma or pollute your story even further. I have nothing but respect and admiration for you, and I’m touched you read my piece!